Jackie says that a person that she admires is the late photojournalist and activist, Dan Eldon. Jackie is also a world traveler in that she speaks three different languages, not counting the language of photography. Like Eldon, she is drawn to beauty of cultures and relations, but not ignorant to the social injustices of our times.

A website dedicated to Eldon’s life, “Dan Eldon: The Journey is the Destination” describes how Eldon committed himself very early in his teenage years to helping others, crossing cultural barriers and documenting those experiences through art and photography. Eldon was raised in a economically secure and privileged family, but he lived an adult life that continuously put that comfort to test. In her own way, Jackie also puts her comfort to test. Jackie wants to attend the University of Washington to study medicine. If you ask her why she wants to be a doctor, her answer is fairly straightforward: “I want to help people.” Ask her why the University of Washington, the answer is different: “It seems like an interesting place to live.”

Much thanks for Senon Davis and Kat Olenick of James Madison University’s School of Media Arts and Design for producing this video for SLI. Thanks as well to Shaun Wright, an associate professor of media production at JMU.